ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the following schemes: the Universities Superannuation Scheme, the Civil Service pension scheme, the armed forces pension scheme and the Medical Research Council pension scheme. It describes the following features: contributions, pension, lump sum, retirement age, dependants' benefits, early retirement, additional benefits, indexation and sources of further information. The vast majority of people working in the medical field are in the NHS pension scheme. A minority are members of other public sector pension schemes. The spouse's pension is 50% of the enhanced pension that the member would have received if retired on the grounds of ill health on the date of death. Employees aged 50 or over may opt to retire early with an actuarially reduced pension and lump sum. The actuarial reduction for each year that benefits are paid earlier than the due retirement age is approximately 5% for the pension and 2.5% for the lump sum.
